Deeper than the truth
by ZC70
Summary: Maybe Clary can't live with keeping Jace at arms length. Snapshot, takes place after Valentine tells them they are siblings and before they learn the truth
1. Chapter 1 I try not too

She stood shoulder to shoulder with Izzy, leaning lightly against the walls of the training room and watched the boys spar. Each one was using every muscle, every technique -nothing held back. As they punched and kicked out all their frustration. Alec's eyes blasting cobalt fire, his chest heaving, his dark hair slick with sweat and a lopsided grimace playing across his face, as he stared down at a pinned Jace. Jace's golden eyes wide and shimmering stared back at Alec, his chest equally heaving under Alec's forearm.

Finally Jace raises his arms in surrender and Alec jumps off him, bending and grasping his parabati's elbow, he helps him back up.

Clary has been watching them for a while, they are equally matched and beautiful to watch. Jace has more power, but Alec's further reach combats this. Whatever the beauty of the scene and the guilty pleasure of being able to watch her brother's muscles stretch and tense, none of it was doing her any good. It had started out as a training session for all 4 of them, but quickly developed into a one on one between the two beautiful boys. Both needing to burn pent up energies- Alec and Magnus were barely talking and Jace and Clary were...well were just trying to avoid each other. Trying to avoid gazing at each other, trying to avoid touching each other, trying to avoid feeling anything at all.

Clary was now beyond frustrated. She was full of boiling need, full of tense attractive and watching Jace being hot, sweaty and powerful was only making it worse.

"Izzy?" Clary quietly attracts her friend's attention.

Izzy looks over at Clary, one eyebrow raised and a small smile on her lips- It was Izzy's way of saying I'm all ears, but you better make it good as I'm easily bored.

"However much I'm enjoying watching Jace get his ass handed to him. This is doing me no good."  
Izzy smirked, her mind immediately working on the idea that Clary was getting some pleasure from watching the boys spar. "I think she protests too much" Izzy tells her with a wiggle of her eyebrows.  
Clary feels the heat in her neck and quickly bites on her cheek to stop the blush rising any further.  
"That's...that's not what I meant!" She stutters. "Seriously Izzy, we been here for ages, I've not had any training or sparring and I need to let this out." She avoids revealing just exactly what this meant- hopefully Izzy would draw her own conclusions.

"How about going dancing?" She asks "I'll even let you dress me." - that should sweeten the deal. Izzy positively bounces on the balls of her feet, grabs Clary's hand and drags her away from the training room.

Jace hears the door of the training room shutting and swiftly kicks out Alec's legs from beneath him and collapses panting on the floor beside him. He's got no reason to hold it in now she's left. The tears that have been shimmering along the edge of his lower lid all through training start to trickle across his cheek. His laboured breathing begins to hitch causing Alec's head to whip round.

"Jace? Jace are you okay?" He asks the emotional boy beside him.

Jace has always run hot, his emotions close to the surface, but usually he keeps himself under tight control. Alec could count on one hand the number of times that he's seen Jace like this.

Jace reluctantly looks at Alec, "No, no I'm not."

He wipes his face with his arm, transferring the moisture onto the hairs of his arm and lets it drop to covering his eyes. He's a hot mess, but can't find the energy to care.

"I don't know how to keep going from here, " he tells Alec. "I can feel when she's close. I know when it's her that's walked into a room, even with my back to the door. I have to constantly dig my nails into my palms to stop myself from touching her, " he blindly lifts his right hand up and shows his palm to Alec, who can clearly see the half moon outlines of nails running across the palm of Jace's hand. "and every time... Every single time she's hurt or afraid I just want to hold her and make it better."

He looks at Alec again, this time with clearer, pleading eyes, "How do you go from being in love with your sister to just loving your sister?"

Alec looks at him, feeling the hopelessness seeping across their bond. He tries to imagine if it where him and Magnus. It makes his heart break. He needs to go and talk to him, their fight seems very petty compared to what Jace is going through. Gathering up Jace and giving him a tight squeeze, so he knows he not alone, Alec tries to find words of comfort. "I don't know if anything will help, other than time. You just need to give it time...and maybe try to avoid her?"

"What do think I've been doing the last week?" Jace laughs bitterly as he pulls away from Alec's embrace.  
"And seriously I don't think I've ever been so miserable. I can't eat, I barely sleep and every time I see her she looks like someone just killed her pet vampire...again!"


	2. Chapter 2 Hubba, hubba

Izzy struts into the club wearing a tight, sparkling, blood red dress that barely conceals her curves. Her hair streaming in a sleek black wave down her back. She turns to make sure her companion is keeping up and to also admire her handy work.

Izzy had taken Clary at her word and had had great fun dressing her just like she always wanted. Using every technique in her arsenal to bring out the best in her willowy body. She'd arranging her hair in up at the front with the red curls tumbling down her back. She'd dressed her in dark red peasant blouse synched at the waist with a black leather under bust corset embroidered with dark red roses. Highlighting the perfection of her pale blonde skin and the gentle swell of her high breasts. She'd paired it with tight black jeans and knee high leather boots. She had to admit to herself that Clary looked hot, all long slim legs, tight high ass and pert breasts.

Izzy mutters "Hubba, Hubba," as Clary walks towards her. Shame that she's so straight, Izzy might be tempted to corrupt her.

"Well my dear, how about a couple of shots to get this party started?"

Clary appears to think about it, she's not a drinker, she's not of age yet, but her gut is still butterflies and her blood still pounding so while the hell not- anything to help her forget. To help her move forward. "Yeah sure, why not. What about ID?"

"Pfft," Izzy says with some distain, "let me worry about that. Let's go find a table then I'll go get the drinks."

Izzy arrives back at the table with 4 shots some lime wedges and what looks like salt. Clary is somewhat confused, but shrugs to herself...Go big or go home, right?

"These, my dear are tequila slammers. Guaranteed to get our party started. First you hold the wedge between for thumb and forefinger." Clary does as Izzy suggests. "Then you lick the side of the same hand and sprinkle some salt on. The lick keeps the salt in place." Izzy demonstrates and passes Clary the salt. Clary licks and sprinkles and can feel the salt drying onto her skin.

"Now take your shot into your other hand. Then you lick the salt, slam the tequila and suck on the lime. And no pauses in between each manoeuvre." Izzy grins at her and Clary gives her hands an evil look, as though they're the ones responsible for what is just about to happen.

"On three. One, two, three!"

Both girls lick, slam and suck. Izzy moans loudly, like it's the best feeling in the world and Clary screams "LIME!"

Izzy can't hold back the snort followed by a full out wide mouth laugh. "What the hell Clary off course it's lime."

Clary splutters, shaking her head as if to dispel the taste. "I just...well I just wasn't expected it to be quite so lime, you know full on lime." This just has Izzy laughing worse, having to dab her eyes to avoid mascara runs.

Izzy eventually manages to get it under control. Clary does her best to get the blushing to die down. She feels a bit stupid. Off course she knows lime to very limey.

"Well now you've found out just how ..." she hesitates, looking for the right words. "Limey, your lime is. Do you think we can drink the next one?"

Clary nods, sure that this time it won't be quite such a shock.

"Maybe for the next round we could find a willing victim and do body shots?" Izzy queries with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

"What on earth are body shots?"

"If you're lucky later I'll show you." Izzy says with a smirk as the grasps her lime wedge and licks her hand.

This time Clary suppresses the need to scream lime and just let's the citrus bite blend with the tequila taste in her mouth. She licks her lips and thinks maybe the tequila and lime aren't such a bad taste after all.


	3. Chapter 3 Screwed

**Chapter Text**

The buzz of the tequila gives Clary the courage to close her eyes and feel the beat of the music pulse through her. She lets her hips sway, her hands rise in the air. The crush of the people dancing around her disappears, she allows herself to feel free, lost in the crowd almost happy for the first time in what seems like forever.

Every now and then a pair of hands grab her hips, a solid body grinds into her and she lets herself feel the heat for a minute, but knows instantly that the smell is wrong, the body is not the right height and the fingers lack the strength that she needs. So she slips away disappointed, but not heart broken. She refuses to let this break her. She allows to music to sooth her, lets the tempo guide her and revels in the trickles of sweat running down between her breasts.

* * *

"Why are we here again?" Whines Alec, rolling his eyes as Jace pushes him through the door of the club.

"Because you, you asshole are getting married. Because I need to forget [ _my sister_ ] and because...well just fucking because!" He wasn't ready to confront his personal reasons for needing to hit the bar. Best to let Alec believe that it was impending vows that have them here.

Jace couldn't believe that Alec had agreed to marry Lydia. He knew why, but he just couldn't...could not get behind the idiot throwing his happiness away. Especially he knows what it feels like to have his own ripped from him. Alec may not understand now, but the first time he falls in love with some guy. He going to realise just exactly what he's done by not following his heart.

Jace drags a reluctant Alec towards the bar. Alec doesn't drink much, but Jace was determined to at least get him drunk enough to have it out, maybe get him to see sense.

Jace orders himself a double whisky and Alec some frothy fruity thing, subconsciously hoping to remind him of a certain Warlock, but mainly so he can't detect the huge amounts of alcohol in it.

Alec scans the crowd, looking through glamours and checking their safety. It's instinct, drilled in from an early age- Always be aware of your surrounding, always be prepared. He spots the odd downworlder, not too many, nothing to worry about. He spots a flash golden red in the crowd on the dance floor. His eyes zero in and he's really not surprised to see his sister and Clary. It's just his luck that they both happened to come to the same club.

"Alec.."

He spins round putting himself between Jace and the dance floor. Maybe if he can distract him, he'll keep Jace from seeing the girls.

"What this?" He says holding up the drink- well he thinks it's a drink, the cherry and pineapple dangling into the white liquid make it look more like pudding.

"Just shut up and drink it. I guarantee you like it." Jace says with an eyebrow wiggle.

Alec wants to slap himself in the face. Did Izzy learn that from Jace or did he learn it from her. Doesn't matter really it still feels too close to flirting for Alec's comfort.

Alec downs half the drink in one go. Trying to get the heat rising up his neck to just go away- fuck just get control. He's tempted to step aside and let Jace see the girls. Maybe even point them out so that he doesn't have to deal with Jace. But in the end he cares about Jace far to much, wants to protect him from any more pain and hell this is their night.

"Hey slow down. The night has just started." Jace laughs as Alec swirls the rest of the drink and pours it down his throat. He hands the glass back to Jace, but plucks out the pineapple before fully letting go.

"Another?" Jace asks with a smirk. Alec nods whilst biting through the pineapple. Jace just shakes his head in amusement and turns back to face the bar. Alec quickly turns, whilst Jace is distracted to check out the girls. He's relieved to not be able to see them anymore, so turns his back and waits for Jace to bring him another _fruity fuck me_...he smirks at his own joke.

* * *

Clary feels small soft hands running over her arms, a distinct waft of vanilla and spice fills her senses. A softer body presses into her back than her previous partners.

"Don't look now, but we have company."

Clary stiffens at Izzy's words. Not sure what she means, but she opens her eyes, blinking at the lights pulsating around her. She's had her eyes closed so long it's like waking up from a deep sleep. She's not sure where she shouldn't be looking, but Izzy's hand gentle pushes her cheek so she's looking at the bar, if not facing it. Leaning into Izzy's soft curves, she scans the crowd at the bar and jolts upright when she realises that one of the backs is very familiar- Alec.

She releases the breath that she'd now realised that she'd been holding since Izzy had spoken. She sees Alec toss some pale drink down his throat, which shifts his position enough that she gets a glimpse of the blonde standing in front of him. Before she even thinks about it she is pulling Izzy towards the back of the dance floor, as far away from the bar as possible. She doesn't want him to see her, she doesn't want to see him. She turns away from the bar, her heart trying to beat out of her chest. Swinging back round she takes in her surroundings. There doesn't seem to be any exit that doesn't involve walking past the bar.

"Hey...hey look at me." Izzy holds Clary's cheeks getting her to look directly at Izzy.  
"They can't see us. Just ignore that they are here. Tonight is all about us having fun. Forget him, fuck him..." Izzy grins at her. Clary can't help but give Izzy her _seriously_ look -head to the side, eyes wide, both eyebrows raised!

"No, no I mean don't fuck him. That's disgusting he's my brother." A shocked look crosses her face when she realises what she's just said, before she just doubles over holding onto Clary's arm, shaking as a loud snort followed by the most unladylike chortle escapes her.

Finally she stops laughing. She does her best to control the smirk, wiping the tears away from her eyes. She's pretty sure that Clary's not ready to see the funny side of this situation, but hopefully she'll forgive her for doing exactly that.

"I'm sorry, but you really are screwed." She tells the unimpressed girl in front of her. She pulls Clary into a quick hug. "I think it's time for more tequila and my first statement still stands, tonight we ignore them and have fun. Deal?"

It's all Clary wants, so she's shaking Izzy's outstretched hand before she can talk herself out of it.

"Okay, excellent, good." She's relieved that Clary is still up for it, even with the boys being in the club. "Let's go find us some pretty victims to go to the bar for us then. Maybe they'll be pretty enough to lick"


	4. Chapter 4 demon dancer's eye

Jace is feeling the warm slide of the alcohol smoothing out the creases on his soul. His shoulders relax and he watches Alec leaning against the back of the booth they're sitting in. He can feel that they're both at the stage that they can talk about this, without coming to blows.

"Alec, you really don't want to marry Lydia. What are you doing this to yourself?"

"Family. Respect. Something I have to do." Comes the barely audible response. Good job Jace has enhanced hearing or he'd not have heard a word of that.

"Alec...Alec look at me..." He waits for his slumped parabati to sit up and look at him.

"You can't martyr yourself like this. You're never going to be happy. And Alec you deserve to be happy." He says sincerely. He loves Alec. All he wants is for his brother to be happy.

Alec looks exhausted, as though everything that's happened in the past few weeks has completely zapped the life out of him. Jace is so used to him being at his back, tall, stiff and ready for action. His broody, all seeing eyes, his set mouth ready to call Jace out on his shit. Seeing him like this hurts Jace almost as much as his own- in love with my sister- pain.

Before Jace can say any more, a weight of supple flesh, red nails and blonde curl falls into his lap. An arm round his neck, overpowering sent of rose and a nose nuzzling his ear.

"Jace," a sultry voice says into his ear, "where have you been?"

He swiftly turns to look at the girl now settled onto his lap. She's still holding onto him and he's now almost nose to nose with her. She's cute and vaguely familiar. She certainly seems to know him. He wracks his brain trying to come up with a name. While she grins at him, she pulls away unsteadily to get a better look at him. His arm automatically coming up to hold her back as she grasps his shoulder to stop herself from falling off him.

Alec's right eyebrow is almost at his hairline. He'd got so used to Jace being with just Clary that he'd suppressed memories of his parabati's more alley cat ways. Unfortunately the bubbly blonde now sitting in Jace's lap has now brought them all back, like a wet fish being slapped in his face.

"Fuck this I need another drink." Alec mutters to himself, as he stomps away from the booth.

Jace wants to go after him, but Katie... no Katya...no- He still can't quite grasp the memory- Seems very firmly placed on his lap. Her fingers scratching at the short hairs at the back of his neck. Her other hand holding tight to his shirt just above his heart. Jace smirks at her, maybe this is what he needs- They do say the best way to get over someone is to get under someone, right?

* * *

Clary had successfully managed to forget about him for the past hour- success being relative. It still counts if she has refused to allow herself to dwell on his presence every time she sees a flash of blonde. They've kept themselves to the back of the dance floor as far from the bar and booths as possible. Izzy is dancing with some tall, dark haired Seelie. He looks vaguely familiar, but she didn't introduce him and Clary was happy to keep her eyes shut and her brain focused on the music.

Unfortunately her bladder has other plans. It was always going to happen and usually it wouldn't be an issue, but the restrooms were much closer to the bar and booths than she would like. She had no idea where Jace and Alec were, or even if they were still in the club. What she does know is that they were nowhere near the back of the club. She couldn't put it off any longer, so opening her eyes and starts to make her way through the crowd. She does her best to stay within the crowd of dancers, leaving it to the last minute to break through and make her way towards the restroom. Hoping that her luck will hold and he'll be looking the other way or be too busy to see her or gone- She's shake away the ache that that thought brings, refusing to acknowledge it.

She keeps her head down as she finally breaks through the dancers. Fingers tightly crossed trying to make herself as invisible as possible. A laugh that she'd know anywhere brings her to abrupt stop- Don't look, don't you dare look, her brain tells her, but her heart is much stronger and she looks. She immediately wishes she didn't. He's there in a booth not far away and he's not with Alec.

She's stuck, her legs rejecting any attempt to move. She takes in the scene slowly, his laugh, his smile. The curly blonde's hands in his hair, at his chest. Her face so close to his. His face turning slightly so she can speak into his ear. His fucking smile again at whatever she's said. His hand resting on her knee, his arm around her back.

She jumps as a hand touches her arm. Her head whipping around to see Alec, one hand on her arm the other holding what looks like a bowl of fruit topped with an umbrella and pink froth. His eyes trying to tell her something. She can't tell what it is, doesn't want to know what he's trying to say. She pulls herself free, one final look at Jace and stumbles away to the restroom.

Xxx

Alec watches her stumble away. The look in her eyes before she fled just kills him. He likes Clary and she doesn't deserve this. Sure he finds her annoying and he spent the first few weeks of knowing her being a complete utter jealous ass. Not that she needs to know that, but lately he's been discovering that you love who you love. Hopefully if you're lucky they love you back.

Sucking on the two straws sticking out of his latest Fruity Fuck Me...yes, yes that's not it's real name, but that's definitely it's effect. He glances over at Jace flirting with the random blonde that he'd bet that Jace has no idea what her name is. Grabbing his phone out of his pocket he sends a quick text.

At Pandemonium, come and save me please.

He waits and seconds later gets a reply.

Be there in a blink of a demon dancer's eye.

He turns and heads back towards the bar. Jace already occupied and in no need of Alec's company. Plus Alec had no wish to have a front row seat to that shit storm.


End file.
